AU to raise $750m to combat spread of Ebola in West Africa

The Africa union has created a $750m special fund to help combat the spread of Ebola Virus Disease in ravaging parts of West Africa. Dr.Dlaamini Zuma,the chairperson of the AU Commission,announced this development after a business round table with members of the private sector at the AU Headquarters in Ad dis Ababa on Saturday.

Earlier,the commission had invited the private sector to raise funds as part of the efforts to deploy more volunteer workers to the countries like Guinea,Liberia and Sierra Le-one worst hit by the Ebola Virus,(EVD). The Commission said so far, the platform of the AU Ebola program had been deployed to the affected countries within the last two months.

The fund would managed by a private sector led board the while ADB would administer it. The private sector,led by the the African Development Bank,made commitment to immediately raise 28.5 millions dollars to facilitate the deployment of an initial 1,000 volunteers to the three worst hit countries.

Most of the West African countries being ravaged by the Ebola outbreak are so poor that they could not contain it on their one. Malaria are still even a major problem for some of them let alone Ebola. Nigeria remain the only country in Wast Africa that have been able to effectively combat the epidemic on their own without any assistance from external body.

Thousands of lives have been lost since the outbreak of Ebola with many still in quarantine facing the real danger of dieing from the disease. If the AU could come to the aid, that would be a welcome development for a region that has been ravaged by poverty and corruption by the Government officials. The effort of the AU is in direct contrast to that of Canada who recently issue visa ban for travelers from West Africa.

Canada is a country built by and still composed mostly of immigrants. It’s a country that prides itself on being a good global citizen. It’s a country that lobbied against — and was economically scarred by — short-lived travel restrictions following the SARS outbreak of 2002-03.

Now, Canada is one of only two developed countries to issue a visa ban for people from Ebola-stricken West Africa — a wrong-headed decision that is xenophobic, bad science, and against international law. Now, what would they do to the USA who is also having confirm cases of Ebola outbreak? Close the border?

Mali confirmed its first case of Ebola late Thursday, making it the sixth West African country to get the disease this year. The BBC has reported that the case involves a 2-year-old girl.

The World Health Organization has not yet analyzed and confirmed the case. But it’s not especially surprising that the virus has spread to Mali given the country shares a border with Guinea, where the outbreak originated and continues to spread out of control.

Mali — along with the the Ivory Coast — has been considered by the World Health Organization one the countries at greatest risk of getting Ebola.